Opinion

Four ways to give back through the arts

Opinion

Home Resources Opinion Four ways to give back through the arts

Opinion

Four ways to give back through the arts

John Doe

To put things into perspective: giving to the arts means more than just supporting a company’s artistic endeavours – support for the arts helps build a more inclusive society and brings benefits to the community in many ways.

Many of Singapore’s artists, art companies and institutions are passionate about social causes, and make it part of their mission to give back through the work they do. These efforts often go beyond cultivating art appreciation, to include efforts to reach out to the less privileged, nurture the young and bring the joy of the arts to a wider audience.

Ensuring A Brighter Future for Vulnerable Families and Children

Group of elderly sitting around a round table

Family of Wisdom – Caring for persons with dementia and their caregivers

Three young men playing soccer on a field, displaying teamwork, agility, and passion for the sport.

Changi Foundation – Helping youths to realise their dreams

To help navigate the dynamic field of the arts, we have identified key areas in which the arts is making strides within the local community:

Arts education
An arts education is considered vital in helping children develop creativity and imagination – key skills to thrive in the future economy. These efforts can be bolstered by supporting spaces for early arts exposure, such as the Keppel Centre for Art Education at the National Gallery Singapore, or access to dedicated arts training and programmes as exemplified by The Rice Company, Art Outreach Singapore and Playeum.

Alongside their artistic season, many local arts companies have also developed outreach programmes for children and youths, including Singapore Repertory Theatre, The Necessary Stage, Odyssey Dance Theatre, The Fingers Players, The Theatre Practice, TheatreWorks and Temenggong Artists-In-Residence.

Active aging
Empowering our seniors to lead meaningful, active lives is a priority for Singapore, and the arts can play a significant role. Events such as the National Arts Council’s Silver Arts Festival have demonstrated how the arts offer seniors a safe space to try new activities, and also a platform to engage their minds through enjoying a performance or work of art, as exemplified by Beautiful Mind Charity which runs free concerts at various elderly homes. The Singapore Chinese Orchestra plays to patients and healthcare workers in hospitals and care centres through its ‘Caring Series’ to provide the healing touch through music.

Others like contemporary dance outfit The Arts Fission Company have channelled art towards practical benefits. The company runs Everyday Waltzes for Active Aging, a programme which utilises movement to help the elderly maintain strong core muscles and reduce their risk of falling.

Mental health
In some instances, the arts contributes to the mental health of different segments of our society by helping to recognise and bring deep issues to light. Take for instance theatre company Drama Box, which develops theatrical work mirroring our social fabric. The company has worked with many marginalised and underserved groups, including migrant workers, out-of-school youths and the elderly, and continues to use theatre to explore important social issues from mental health, dying, resilience and identity.

Special needs
The arts celebrates the value of every human being, making it a natural fit when it comes to engaging individuals with special needs and disabilities. Superhero Me, a ground-up inclusive arts movement turned charity, has been championing the power of art to bring joy and empowerment to children from needy families and those with special needs.

Arts companies can also use their expertise to give back. Contemporary dance company RAW Moves runs A Little RAW, an inclusive children’s dance company bringing dance to children with special needs, while Beautiful Mind Charity has been offering free professional music education to children with disabilities since 2014.

Photo: National Arts Council

Related Topics For You: ACCESSING QUALITY EDUCATION, ARTS & HERITAGE, CHARITY STORIES, CHILDREN, EDUCATION, HEALTH, INCLUSIVITY & INTEGRATION, MENTAL WELLBEING, OPINION, PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, STORIES OF IMPACT, YOUTH

admin bluecube

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

Opinion

Creating social impact through philanthropy

John Doe

Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has likely changed your life on a daily basis. Though the pandemic has affected everyone, it hasn’t done so equally – the situations of the most vulnerable groups have been severely aggravated and awareness of our society’s fault lines and underserved needs have been heightened. But, if this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s the tremendous power of common people working together to achieve a unified goal.

How Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) present an innovative and structured solution to Singapore’s philanthropic landscape

Giving from strength to strength

Pragmatic reasons to engage In philanthropy

Related Topics For You: ACCESSING QUALITY EDUCATION, ARTS & HERITAGE, CHARITY STORIES, CHILDREN, EDUCATION, HEALTH, INCLUSIVITY & INTEGRATION, MENTAL WELLBEING, OPINION, PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, STORIES OF IMPACT, YOUTH

admin bluecube

News

Money Mind – Leaving A Legacy

John Doe

How can you leave your mark on the world and make an impact on the lives of others?

LISTEN: Catherine Loh, CEO, Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS); lawyer and CFS ambassador, Nadia Ahmad Samdin

Money Mind, weekdays 10am to 2pm on #CNA938.

The CDA top-up programme: Giving support to pre-school children from low-income families

A call for collaborative giving: Join hands to make a difference and contribute towards a common cause.

A Call for Collaborative Giving: Bridging the Divide for Persons with Disabilities

Business Times: Preserving a century-old legacy of giving

Speaking after the association’s annual general meeting at Kallang Netball Centre on Friday, Liang-Lin, a fund manager for a US$7 billion (S$9.5 billion) firm focused on green real estate investments in Asia, hopes to bring her expertise to the table and increase the amount of financial support for Singapore netball during her four-year term.

The 53-year-old took over from Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jessica Tan, who has been the association’s president since 2012. Tan had reached the end of her tenure, which saw the national team make several breakthroughs, including a gold medal at the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore.

Liang-Lin holds various appointments such as being Singapore’s representative to the G20 for Women appointed by the Ministry of Finance. She is also a board member of the Community Foundation of Singapore, which promotes philanthropy through facilitating the establishment of charitable funds.

She said: “One of the things that is overlooked when we look at philanthropy and fundraising is that sport is not really part of the things that people will automatically think about.

“Less than one per cent of the funds that we raise in the Community Foundation goes to sport. The values that sport brings need to be amplified more, so that corporates… see the need to support sport. I think that link needs to be stronger so that we get not just more corporate sponsors, but also they can come in for longer periods of time.”

While national agency Sport Singapore provides funding to netball, corporates can also do their part, she added.

She said: “If we play our cards correctly, we can get corporates to come in and hopefully support them, to see the wider purpose of sport and bring the nation together.”

She also hopes the association can be proactive in looking for financial support, adding: “We must work more strategically with governing bodies on educating corporates on the importance of really supporting sport.”

The former netball player also made references to the recent Women’s World Cup for football, noting the “ability for a game that focuses on women in the sport to bring global attention”.

She said: “I want that kind of trajectory of the limelight going to women’s sport. I think that is a trend that will continue, and I hope that netball will be part of that trend.”

Meanwhile, Tan was satisfied that she has achieved the three objectives she had set out to do when she came on board – to improve quality of play, build a fan base and create an ecosystem which involves coaches and players.

The 57-year-old added: “As much as I do feel sad about having to step down, but at the same time, leadership renewal is very important.

“I think Trina will help to galvanise the team together, and bring a lot of new perspectives and quality to the association.”

Join us in making an impact on Singapore sports scene! Reach out to us for more information.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

John Doe

The competition was organised by City Harvest Community Services Association and received support from FUN! Fund, a Community Impact Fund jointly established by the Community Foundation of Singapore and the Agency for Integrated Care, with the aim of addressing social isolation among the elderly.

Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information & Ministry of National Development Mr Tan Kiat How attended the event. He encouraged the elderly to stay physically and mentally well, as well as urging them to participate in community activities and enjoy their golden years together.

Learn more about FUN! Fund at https://www.cf.org.sg/fun-fund/.

The programme provides the children with a non-threatening platform to connect with peers and have positive conversations. In addition, it exposes them to different people who can assist to broaden their perspectives.
L.S., a volunteer with the Reading Odyssey programme @ Spooner Road

中心“常胜将军”胡锦盛：比赛限时反应要快

现年92岁的胡锦盛是最年长的参赛者。自2017年退休后，他几乎每天都到活跃乐龄中心报到，从此爱上了玩拉密，每次可玩上三个小时，在中心是“常胜将军”。

Related Topics For You: ACCESSING QUALITY EDUCATION, ARTS & HERITAGE, CHARITY STORIES, CHILDREN, EDUCATION, HEALTH, INCLUSIVITY & INTEGRATION, MENTAL WELLBEING, OPINION, PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, STORIES OF IMPACT, YOUTH

admin bluecube

Stories Of Impact

The Spooner Road Project – Reaching children and youths at the margins

John Doe

For vulnerable children and youths from disadvantaged families, daily life is often filled with myriad challenges. Many ‘troubled’ children and youths become at risk for delinquency and fail to complete school. Naturally, most of them don’t realise their full potential and may suffer from poor self-esteem or mental health issues.

As one of the few social work agencies with an added competency in educational psychology, Students Care Service (SCS) has an established track record of tackling issues faced by children and youths living at the margins. Today, it reaches over 6,500 children and youths each year through its centres and intervention programmes.

Giving back to society without fuss, the Singaporean way

Children dressed in bright costumes holding props while performing on stage

UBS Diversity in Abilities Concert – Celebrating the talents of children with special needs

Bright moon illuminating serene city park.

The Funding Network (TFN)

The unique challenges faced by one community along Spooner Road captured SCS’s attention, and led them to start the Spooner Road Project in mid-2015. At a recent site visit, the Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS) and other partners observed the dedication and efforts that are steadily impacting the Spooner Road community.

Located in an enclave of public rented flats in central Singapore, the Spooner Road centre is housed amidst a transient, vulnerable community of over 300 families. Many families often arrive here after losing their home due to financial issues. The physical isolation of these flats, which once served as the dormitories of railway workers, means everyday resources from healthcare to Family Service Centres (FSCs) are not easily accessible here. To help alleviate the difficulties faced by these families, CFS’s donor UBS funded a Foodshare programme where packed groceries were delivered to their doorsteps.

Many of the young living here struggle to access resources to support them as they learn and grow, exacerbated by the lack of spaces for play and constructive supervision by their caregivers.

To address the issues faced in this complex environment, the Spooner Road Centre offers a conducive, homely space for the young to spend time. The centre runs a range of supervised play sessions, study skills sessions, student football and special events, helping to keep these children and youths engaged in positive activities and decrease their risk of delinquency.

Another key area of impact is addressing the school readiness of the children living here. With some falling as far as two years behind their peers, the team at SCS identifies candidates for its Reading Odyssey Programme to help increase reading ability. SCS Social worker Tok Kheng Leng highlights the importance of these timely interventions, “When children first go to school already lagging behind their peers, it’s difficult for them to catch up. One side effect is they start to misbehave. It’s then a downward spiral of being labeled as deviant child.”

In early 2018, the team is looking forward to further bolster their existing efforts in improving school readiness. It’s looking to pilot a new programme, based on recent research, to empower students from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve academic success. As Centre Director Lee Seng Meng explains, “We’re excited to be piloting these new strategies. If we can garner positive results, it would be very helpful when we work with other communities facing similar challenges.”

Photo: Students Care Service.

Related Topics For You: ACCESSING QUALITY EDUCATION, ARTS & HERITAGE, CHARITY STORIES, CHILDREN, EDUCATION, HEALTH, INCLUSIVITY & INTEGRATION, MENTAL WELLBEING, OPINION, PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, STORIES OF IMPACT, YOUTH

admin bluecube

Events

CFS’s Lala Café Series: Befriending Stress

John Doe

CFS’s Lala Café is an employee engagement series for everyone at CFS to learn, socialise and rejuvenate.

For the October edition of LaLa Café, we had the pleasure of having Chai Lee Fong, a consultant at Lifeskills Institute, Joyce Tan, a clinical dietitian, and Liew Wei Yong, a fitness coach to share with us practical tips and advice on how to “Befriend Stress & Build Cognitive Fitness Through Diet and Strength”.

Lunar New Year 2018 – Celebrating a decade of growing giving to impact

FutureChina Global Forum: CFS CEO Advocates for the Integration of Philanthropy into Wealth Management Strategies

CFS’ LaLa Café Series: Wellness Talk and Mindfulness Practice

Lee Fong first led us through an engaging discussion on what is stress, and how to deal effectively with it. She shared that potential daily stressors could trigger 2 types of stress: acute stress vs chronic stress. Acute stress, being the stress we experience due to a sudden calamity befallen upon us or a temporary event, triggers in us a “fight, flight, freeze” response to stress. On the other hand, chronic stress is worse in that one could experience buildup of such stress, or to put it in Lee Fong’s words, the “drip drip drip effect” and hence cause burnout.

Lee Fong shared several stress management methods such as adopting a positive mindset. This could result in 3 key advantages, namely: growth, resilience and strength in us on the whole. She advocated that for every event, with a positive outlook, we could then cope better. For example, she suggested to view the pandemic from another lens, as something that previous generations have not had the chance to experience, and with this whole new light, it did seem like it was something special rather than catastrophic, proving that her method of taking on a positive view worked! She accentuated to all of us that stress can cause damage to the brain, such as the hippocampus.

After Lee Fong’s wonderful sharing, we learnt more from Joyce who shared about nutrition and mental health.

Joyce shared in-depth knowledge on the different types of fat and sugars to avoid to prevent ourselves from going on a blood sugar rollercoaster, some hidden within our food and even our sauces! Many of us jumped at the chance and bombarded her with questions on what oils to use, whether plant-based milk was a better choice etc. She patiently answered all our questions and enlightened us on the truths behind certain myths such as brown rice and whole meal grains.

She also shared more about one thing many working adults are obsessed with – coffee! Mainly she shared alternatives to sugars we could use in our coffee, such as Stevia, and advised against aspartame, as it is an artificial sweetener that could trick our tongue but not our brain.

The session ended off with a live fitness demo by Wei Yong, who showed us numerous core exercises we could easily do at home using a chair or against a wall, as strengthening our core would benefit our strength and resilience as a whole and improve our brain health. She also demonstrated a few stretching exercises that would benefit us after sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time, which many of us were thankful and applauded her for.

CFS takes pride in supporting our employees’ mental health and overall wellness, and supports mental health funds such as Mind The Gap 200.